1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator door. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for facilitating an icemaker unit to be installed to prevent water from splashed on the refrigerator door, filing the door with a foaming liquid and enabling cold air of a refrigerator to flow to an ice-making room without leaking.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator is a device for storing food at low temperature. And, the refrigerator is a home appliance storing food in a manner of freezing or cooling the food according to its state. Moreover, consumers tend to be interested in large-scale and multi-functional refrigerators to enhance the high standard of living and meet their various tastes.
Recently, a refrigerator is provided with various convenience devices and its internal configuration tends to be diversified to fit a user's taste and use.
A refrigerator according to the present invention is applicable to refrigerators having diverse configurations. In the following description, a bottom freezer type refrigerator among various type refrigerators will be explained for example. In this case, a body the bottom freezer type refrigerator is partitioned into an upper part and a lower part to be provided with a cold storage room and a freezer room, respectively.
FIG. 1 is a front diagram of a refrigerator according to a related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a body of a refrigerator 1 approximately has a rectangular box shape. An internal space of the body 1 is partitioned into an upper part and a lower part to configure a cold storage room 10 and a freezer room 12.
A refrigerator door 20 is provided to an open front side of the body 1. The refrigerator door 20 is to selectively close or open the open front side of the cold storage room 10 or the freezer room 12. And, the refrigerator door 20 consists of a cold storage room door 22 and a freezer room door 28.
The cold storage room door 22 is to selectively open/close the cold storage room 10 provided to the upper part of the body 1. In case of a side-by-side type refrigerator, the cold storage room door 22 is provided to both right and left sides. The cold storage room door 22 is configured to rotate centering on a corresponding side end. So, the cold storage room door 22 is able to selectively open/close the cold storage room 10.
And, the freezer room door 28 is to selectively open/close the freezer room 12 provided to the lower part of the body 1. The freezer room door 28 has a draw type configuration enabling back-and-forth sliding input/output. So, the freezer room door 28 is able to selectively open/close the freezer room 20.
Meanwhile, a dispenser 30 is provided to one of the right and left side cold storage room doors 22 to open/close the cold storage room 10. The dispenser 30 facilitates purified water or ice to be taken out of the refrigerator without opening the cold storage room door 22. And, the dispenser 30 is provided to a front side of the cold storage room door 22 to be externally exposed.
FIG. 2 is a perspective diagram of a refrigerator door according to a related art, in which an icemaker 42 provided to a backside of the refrigerator door is shown.
Referring to FIG. 2, an ice making room 40 is provided to a backside of a door 20 provided with a dispenser 30. And, an icemaker 42 is provided within the ice making room 40 to make ice.
The ice making room 40 is configured with a recessed part on an inner case 24 forming the backside of the door 22. And, the ice making room 40 is selectively opened/closed by an ice making room door 48 rotatably provided to its side.
An icemaker 42 making ice, an ice bank 44 storing the ice and a transfer means 46 for supplying the stored ice to a discharge part (cf. 1) 32 of the dispenser 30 are provided within the ice making room 40. And, they are directly attached to the inner lateral side of the ice making room 40, i.e., the inner case 24.
FIG. 3 is a perspective diagram of a refrigerator door according to a related art, in which an inner configuration of the refrigerator is shown.
Referring to FIG. 3, a refrigerator door consists of an outer case 26 forming an exterior of the refrigerator door and an inner case 24 provided within the outer case to form a backside of the door.
And, a dispenser case 34 forming a shape of an inside of the dispenser 30 is attached to the inside of the outer case 26.
A tube guide 50 is provided below the dispenser case 34. The tube guide 50 is connected to the dispenser 30 to support a water supply tube 52 via which water flows. And, the tube guide 50 is fixed to a backside of the outer case 26 to enable the water supply tube 52 to keep a predetermined distance.
Meanwhile, for the assembly of the cold storage room door 22, the water supply tube 52, the dispenser 30 and the like are provided to the outer case 26 and the tube guide 50 is installed to adhere closely to the backside of the outer case 26.
After the inner case 24 forming the backside of the cold storage room 22 has been assembled to the outer case 26, an inside of the cold storage room door 22, i.e., a space between the outer case 26 and the inner case 24 is charged with a foaming liquid for insulation.
Finally, the icemaker 42, the ice bank 44 and the transfer means 46 are installed in the ice making room 40 of the inner case 24.
However, the related art has the following problems.
First of all, the tube guide 50, as shown in FIG. 3, is installed to adhere closely to the backside of the outer case 26. If the cold storage room door 22 is charged with the foaming liquid, a flow of the foaming liquid is interrupted by the tube guide 50. So, it is difficult to fill a position in the vicinity of the tube guide 50, a corner part or the like with the foaming liquid. If the insufficient filling of the foaming liquid takes place, insulation efficiency of the cold storage room door 22 is lowered to reduce cooling performance of the refrigerator and raise power consumption. So, overall performance of the refrigerator is degraded.
Secondly, the icemaker 42 is directly provided to the inner case 24 of the ice making room 40. Since rigidity of the inner case 24 is relatively weak, the inner case 24 is unable to avoid drooping or transformation in case that the icemaker 42 is directly assembled to the inner case 24. In particular, in case that the icemaker 42 is directly assembled to the inner case 24 without a separate support structure, a malfunction in detaching the icemaker 42 or taking ice takes place as well as the transformation of the inner case 24.
Thirdly, the icemaker 42 is provided to the inside of the cold storage room door 22. As a user opens or closes the cold storage room door, unfrozen water held by the icemaker 42 is splashed in all directions due to a centrifugal force generated from the rotation of the door. In particular, the water in the icemaker 42 is splashed, the splashed water is unable to enter the icemaker 42 again but flows downward. So, the flowing water becomes frozen on another part except the icemaker 42 to interrupt operations of parts configuring the icemaker 42.